Jesus in India, is one of the most popular alternative versions of Jesus’s life and Christianity commonly found in the new age, Yoga and spiritual community, but is it true? After reviewing some of the evidence recently in several documentaries and articles, I think it probably is true. Here are some of the reasons why I think it is true
-
Jesus was persecuted and crucified for his heretical doctrine. However, if one reads the the bible one does not find anything that far removed from the Mosaic religion. What Jesus teaches is not really that radically different to justify the hatred he got from the Jewish priests, because he still pays respect to the Mosaic law, quotes from the Torah etc. However, if Jesus had instead taught something radically different from the Mosaic law, like Dharmic philosophy, then it would make sense why he was considered such a dangerous heretic.
-
It is interesting to note that 100 years after Jesus’s death at least two kinds of Christianity flourished in the world. Closer to home in the Middle East a Gnostic and esoteric Christianity flourished, the most strongest proponent of it being the Gospel of Thomas, whereas in Europe Pauline Christianity flourished, the complete opposite of the Gnostic version. The Gnostic version was prevalent enough to be considered dangerous and a threat to be stamped out by the former. Ironically enough, the Gnostic version is virtually identical to Dharmic philosophy.
-
There are very clear similarities between Christianity and Buddhism and Hinduism(more strongly Buddhism) in both beliefs and practice. The so-called miracles of Jesus such as walking on water, feeding many people with loathes of bread, healing lepers were all miracles performed by Buddha. The strongest similarity is the love, forgiveness, frugal living and compassion theme, which has no precedent in Jewish religion. There are also very clear Dharmic practices like mantra meditation using a rosary, which also have no precedent in Jewish tradition.
-
The bible says nothing about Jesus’s missing years from his childhood to the beginning of his ministry, but there are are actually records in Persian, Sanskrit, Tibetan and Chinese which clearly record Jesus having traveled to India, which was an easy journey to make during the time of Jesus.
-
It is regarded as a fact that Thomas went to India and set up the earliest Church during the life and times of Jesus, which clearly shows an India connection to early Christianity. If Thomas went to India, Jesus could easily have went himself, maybe even told Thomas to go India.
-
Many of the verses in the bible only make sense if they are interpreted through a Dharmic lens, such as the verses on what seem to be suggesting reincarnation and karma, but more obvious ones like “the kingdom of god is within” and the holy trinity. When read with the Gnostic gospels, they all seem to be suggesting Dharmic philosophy.
-
The notion of incarnations of god was completely absent in Jewish religion, but was widely prevalent in India in the belief in Krishna incarnating on Earth in human form. There are many similarities between the biography of Jesus and Krishna. Such as they both were born of divine conception, after their birth the local tyrant king killed all the children that were born recently and many other similarities.
If all evidence is summarized, then one can conclude that it is probably true that Jesus did actually go India in his missing years where he studied with the sages of India and learned Dharmic philosophy, and also perhaps after surviving the crucifixition as well. He brought back with him to Palestine Dharmic beliefs, practices and legends. This was obviously considered an absolute heresy against the religion and this is why he was persecuted and then crucified. After his death, judging by his following, the state attempted to reconcile Jesus’s teachings with the Jewish tradition creating the Pauline version of Christianity which supported their state ideology. At the same time the more authentic version was stamped out and destroyed, because it did not support state ideology.